[Ads-l] Reverse "mistake", v.?

[Laurence Horn]

Right, I’d forgotten that one.  This one is if anything clearer, since at
least Officer Potter *had* both a service weapon and a Taser, even though
as you say it doesn’t make sense in context the way it was written. But in
this one, re “Let’s go, Brandon”,

the phrase that’s gone viral among conservatives since a NASCAR
sportscaster mistook it for a 'Fuck Joe Biden' chant at a race last month


there *was* no phrase “let’s go Brandon” for the sportscaster to mistake
for anything because the phrase didn’t exist before she constructed it.

Anyway, the reverse “mistake” appears to be here to stay, whether or not
it’s a mistake. And language change marches on.

LH

On Nov 6, 2021, at 12:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
wrote:

Heh. It's all too real. As I posted on April 15:

A guest with an authoritative demeanor on today's Morning Joe (MSNBC) said

that Officer Potter "may have mistaken her taser for her service weapon."

If there was a mistake, it had to have been the opposite: she mistook the

handgun for the taser.

Slip of the tongue? Or an emerging reversal like "to substitute for"?


JL

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org